My friend’s 5 month old baby came to visit this afternoon and couldn’t stop playing with my soft vinyl Mazingers. He has good taste.
Category: Friends
Baby Loves Mazingers
Akachan
My good friend gave birth to a beautiful baby boy yesterday afternoon. I went to the hospital in Hiroo and took this photo of the baby’s foot. Seems like everyone around me is having babies. Tomkat, Brangelina and also some people I know personally. What the heck is going on? :-O
Dave
We had a small farewell party for Dave. He left the company last week but we had the party tonight on a count of me being away driving around the countryside in my roadster. Dave’s getting shipped off to Osaka on a new assignment, the lucky bastard. I wouldn’t mind going to Osaka for a while. I’m sure it’d be ripe with blog topics.
The venue was at a small all-you-can-eat-and-drink for ¥2900 Genghis Khan restaurant near the office. Genghis Khan is grilled sheep meat (what do you call that? Mutton?) which originates from Hokkaido and makes your clothes stink like shit for days afterwards. You need a lot of Febreeze to get the smell out. They call it Genghis Khan because the grill is rounded like the helmet of a mongolian barbarian. I’ve always thought it strange to name a food after a ruthless conquerer. The ginger ale in the last photo is the most gingerest ale I have ever tasted. Imagine sucking on a ginger root. Give me Canada Dry anyday.
Old Friends
Today, I got an email from 2 old high school friends whom I haven’t seen or heard from for more than 20 years (Left:Dave, Right:Franc) . What a surprise! Apparently, they tracked me down by doing a search. Is it that easy to find someone on the internet? Is this site getting enough traffic to rank higher in search results? Although I am happy to get in contact with old friends, there are some people I don’t want finding me…if you know what I mean ;) I remember these guys as young geeky teenagers but now they are like old guys!
By the way, Dave sent this picture of me from when I was in high school. I think it’s from my yearbook. Horrible!
Sacchan
One of my friends was on TV tonight! It was a short 5 minute segment about a successful young urban woman. Nice to see that Sachiko is doing well and getting FIT! Check out her kick! Way to go Sacchan!
Gary’s book
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Sparks of Neon By Gerrit Striker Some of you will remember Gary who was an instructor at IMA years ago. I received an email from him this morning and was glad to hear that he was doing well and had moved back to the US. He wrote a book about Nightlife in Tokyo and Kabukicho. I haven’t read it yet but looking forward to it. His pen name is “Gerrit Striker”. If you have a chance please send him an e-mail. |
Evan & Miho
My friends Evan and Miho got married recently and had a nice party near Shimokitazawa. Evan is the one on the left and Miho right.
Rod & Shino
Shino was a student of mine more than 10 yrs ago and I hadn’t seen her for about that long. I bumped into another one of my old students in the station not too long ago which brought me back in contact with the gang. Shino got married to Rod and they had a party in the New Otani tonight. It was really nice to see everyone after so many years.
Tailgaters
A few weekends ago, I was leaving for a drive when I looked into the rear view mirror to see my friends Mayumi and Ken waving at me. They live close by so I would hardly call it a coincidence. The traffic was slow so I had time to pull out the GR and snap a few.
Pixar Exhibit
My old friend Robbie and his wife Linda are in town this week so I skipped off work yesterday and had a fun day hanging around Tokyo with them. Nakano Broadway, Odaiba, Shibuya, Gonpachi were some of the places we visited. We also took in the Pixar Exhibit currently running at the Mori Arts Museum in Roppongi Hills. It was such a nice day yesterday because there were absolutely no crowds anywhere but a surprisely large number of attractive women everywhere we went. I felt like I was on vacation with them only to have to wake up this morning and haul my butt to the office half asleep.
The exhibit had some very cool items on sale. Could not resist buying these squeaky toys. I got the last Lightning Mcqueen!! But I imagine you could probably find them at the Disney Store as well.
Xmas Party Weekend part 1
This evening, I actually went out and had interactions with real live human beings. Tomo and Masami had a xmas/house party at their new flat on the west end of Tokyo. I drove out there in the afternoon which took almost 2 hours because of the traffic. But there was lots of excellent food and great conversations with friends I don’t see as often as I would like. Their mansion is really comfy and has an excellent view. I really shouldn’t visit other people’s homes as it makes me wonder why I’m still living like a student at my age.
OGO Ono-loa Hawaii
Tonight, I actually went out for dinner with friends rather than being antisocial and going straight home to bed at 9:30PM like I’ve been doing recently. Alex (the guy in the middle) recommended this genuine Hawaiian place in Akasaka. OGO is run by a Hawaiian who came to Japan about 2 years ago. I didn’t get his name but he was very friendly. It’s supposed to be the best place for REAL Hawaiian food in Tokyo but since I have never been to Hawaii I have to take the word of my friend on that. Usually, the place is packed with people, mostly Hawaiians apparently, but tonight there were only a few other customers and we could relax listening to some Big Island music that sounded very similar to Okinawan music. Again, I didn’t have a proper camera and the place was rather dark so these pictures really stink.
Bye Yasuko
Today was my coworker and good friend Yasuko’s last day at work. She’s moving on to better things and we will miss her. A big “Otsukaresama” for her!
Sachiko
Congratulations to Sachiko and Gan-chan on their recent wedding. Sachiko was my colleague at my previous company. We had a nice gathering of friends at Celebourg in Akasaka.
Tomo & Masami
My Friends Tomonori and Masami had a beautiful garden wedding party today in Shinagawa.
Bye Emi
This was Emi’s farewell party. She’s moving on to better things.
